Over the past few years, nutritional yeast has staged a valiant crossover from the dusty corner shelves of natural food stores into many a mainstream pantry. These golden flakes—high in protein and made from deactivated yeast—have a savory, almost cheesy flavor that has long made it a popular ingredient in vegan recipes looking to mimic the taste of cheese. But it's much more than just a popcorn topping. Here are our staff's favorite ways to use it:

The Usual: Popcorn

Popcorn might be the easiest way to fall in love with nutritional yeast—like shaking on fake powdered cheese, only it’s not fake, and it’s not cheese. It’s excellent on its own, but don’t be afraid to add other seasonings, too: Senior food editor Carla Lalli Music doctors up her homemade popcorn with Aleppo pepper, black pepper, nutritional yeast, fine salt, and olive oil. The combo gives popcorn a “Dorito flavor,” she says. And you can still call it health food.

Dressings

Music also adds nutritional yeast to traditional vinaigrettes—like this all-purpose number—to give it body and that almost-cheesy flavor, too: “It has the same effect as adding shaved Parmesan to your salad.” And it’s an excellent solution any time you find yourself in a green salad rut.

The little flakes also blend seamlessly in a tahini dressing, bolstering the sesame paste’s creamy savoriness. Try adding a pinch to a dressing made from tahini, lemon juice, cumin, salt, and smoked paprika—just add a bit of water to thin things out. Then toss it into your favorite salad, serve it as a sauce for roasted vegetables, or spread it on a sandwich.

Toasts

When it comes to toast, think of nutritional yeast as just another garnish. And yes, avocado toast is a great place to start (smash avocado on toast, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and nutritional yeast). Music—who, you may have figured out by now, is our office’s official Nutritional Yeast Evangelist—also likes it on buttered rice cakes, which makes for a comforting snack somewhere in the happy zone between kid food and health food.

Roasted Vegetables

If you’re not roasting a pile of vegetables on the regular, get on that. If you are, start sprinkling them with nutritional yeast once they’re crispy and fresh out of the oven. It’s an A+ addition to roasted broccoli, roasted potatoes, squash, and other roots. It’s also awesome in this recipe for roasted and charred broccoli with peanuts if you really want to go forth and prosper.

Pasta

For a quick weeknight dinner, senior associate web editor Rochelle Bilow adds nutritional yeast to simply dressed pasta. Sprinkle it atop olive oil-ed and salted noodles, or do as Bilow does, and add it to hot bucatini or spaghetti with some harissa and a bit of pasta water. She claims it’s good enough that you’ll be swearing off cheese—“For a night, anyway.”

Pesto and Gremolata

For a dairy-free pesto, swap in nutritional yeast for the traditional Parmesan or Pecorino. Just be sure to scale back the amount by about half—the flakes pack a punch. Senior food editor Andy Baraghani also suggests making a spicy gremolata with crushed red pepper flakes, lemon zest, parsley, chives, and nutritional yeast. Use it to garnish whatever protein is on the menu tonight (Shrimp! short ribs! veal! beef!).